










a Sa ges a Fe Basi ea was. then goin; 
‘Dr Bastian a3 the advocate of “ spontaneous ch 
“and Pasteur, Tyndall, Huxley and others, the chamy 
of abiogenesis, nor will they fail to remember that 
scientific ‘World:-decided in favour of the phrase “o 
vivum ex vivo.” In The Evolution of Life (Methuen) 
‘Bastian once more returns to the fray with a courage a 
a persistence which cannot be too much admired. For ° 
most part, the book i3 rather ancient history, since it re- 
tails the controversy of the period to which we have al- 
luded, and reveals to us Dr Bastian’s opinion of his adver- 
saries and the way in which they treated him. Pasteur 
gained his victory by ‘ illogical methods ” (p. 124), which 
nevertheless scem to have imposed upon all other workers 
of all nations in the field once adorned by that great man 
“of science. Huxley and Tyndall took up and adhered to a 
_ preconceived idea, and the Royal Society (here perhaps Dr 
Bastian, as a Senior Fellow, has really some reason to com= 
plain) refused to publish his papers on the spontaneous | 
origin of life in what he considered to be fully sterilized” 
fluids. The plain mar confronted by such a state of affa rs” 
will robably eason that though Athanasius may be right * 
against the world, a good deal of proof will require to be 
forthcoming before such sweeping assertions as Dr Bastian 
makes can be accepted in face of the absolute unaminity of | 
the rest of the scientific world. : 
Dr Bastian says that “‘ we know” (which, by the way, we | 
es not, whatever we may surmise), “that in the far-remote | 
Ppast...a newkind of synthesis must have taken place--a : 
synthesis resulting in the formation of what we call ‘ living 
matter.’”’ According to his opinion a similar synthesis is st it | 
ae g place all around us, and new living matter is con- 
ntly being formed fromnon-living materials. To establish 



